Lockdown
by Cherry Delight
Summary: Jou gets his wish to learn what KaibaCorp is all about, but disaster strikes. Imprisoned together, how can they survive this experience without killing each other? Established SJ.
1. Chapter 1

_Yes, boys and girls, there be more. What's that? Phooey! Well, beans to you! You smelly bastards, you'll read it and like it, goshdarnit!  
_

_Oh yeah, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! _

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Lockdown**

**12:15pm**

"Oh come on!"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

A pregnant pause.

"No."

"Don't be such an ass! I just wanna look around! I swear I won't touch anything!"

"No, Jou. I've got a meeting with the board after lunch and I've got to prepare. I don't have the time to give you the grand tour!"

"It's not a** tour**, I just wanna see the vault!"

"Then I'll get you a picture if it'll shut you up."

"Oh, ha ha. You're always so funny, aren't you? Come on, it won't take more than twenty minutes and you know it. It's also the only way to shut me up! I'll just keep nagging you till you give in sooner or later. Better sooner, right?"

Seto Kaiba scowled. Jou had an irrefutable point.

"Right," he said somewhat grumpily. "You're worse than Mokuba sometimes."

Jou gave a mock bow and smiled smugly.

They were in Seto's gigantic office at the very top of the KaibaCorp building. Katsuya Jounouchi was perched on the edge of Seto's desk, while the CEO was sitting in his large high-backed black leather chair, looking like a king. Or maybe like more like a god, Jou thought, as the light streamed in from the glass wall behind them, illuminating Seto in a decidedly god-like way.

Jou had no problems imagining Seto as such – a vengeful god, omnipotent and angry; and prone to radiating icy mist across the unsuspecting countryside just because he could. He took a good look at Seto again, and decided that right now, he looked more like an annoyed god. He smiled a little. This day was going better than he thought it would have.

"Let's go! It won't take us long, I promise!"

Seto sighed, obviously beaten, and buzzed his secretary.

"Hold all my calls and push my appointments back half an hour. I'll be in the vault."

He spat the last word out like it was venom, but Jou knew he was just acting cranky out of habit. Seto didn't even wait for his secretary (her name was Noriko – Jou liked her a lot) to answer him and he stalked off to his private elevator at the front of the room in a hurricane of trench coat and Jou's favourite cologne. Jou followed at a more sedate pace and smiled sweetly at a glaring Seto as he held the door open for him.

"Going down," Seto said and jabbed at a button marked B5. Jou immediately felt the lurch in his stomach and knew they were hurtling toward the ground at an amazing speed. They stood in silence for a moment, and Jou stealthily glanced in Seto's direction. Seto caught his eye and shook his head.

"If I had known today was bring-your-boyfriend-to-work day, I would have left you tied to the bed this morning."

"You are such a fucking kink," Jou replied. This (along with numerous other disturbing quirks), however, was something Jou had definitely grown to love. He smirked. "I'll tell you what – if you're nice to me today, when we get home I'll make sure to return the favour."

It was Seto's turn to smirk, and Jou let him. This was his day, and he was definitely getting his way.

"Besides, it's not take-your-boyfriend-to-work day. It's my birthday!"

"And you wanted to spend it doing this?" Seto shook his head again. "I'll have you know you could have done anything today. I might even have been persuaded to take the day off."

"Now he tells me." Jou sniffed a little. "I don't know. This place is a really big part of your life. I guess I just wanted to see what the fuss was about." He shrugged a little, and Seto regarded him calmly. But it was a tender calm, and Jou endured it stoically.

"What's on all these other underground floors?" he asked to break the sudden silence. Jou watched the bright display change rapidly – B1, B2, B3.

"This is where we do most of our testing," Seto said. He didn't feel like giving a more in depth explanation, and he was sure Jou wasn't really that interested anyways.

"Okay," Jou said slowly, and the elevator stopped before Jou had time to ask just what the hell kind of game would need underground testing. He soon forgot about that altogether when the door slid open and he looked outside.

They walked into the wide hallway that led to the vault, and stopped at the largest and most formidable pair of steel doors Jou had ever seen in his life. Seto was already punching in his password by the time Jou caught himself.

"Motherfu…what the hell is in there?" he asked, slightly in awe, slightly scared; unable to take his eyes off the doors. He even jumped a little when a creepy voice informed them that access was granted, and then promptly hoped Seto didn't see.

Seto smiled eerily as the thick metal bars hinging the doors together slid backward, and the doors swung forward loudly. Well, the doors themselves moved noiselessly, like metal ghosts, but there was a horrible hissing sound that accompanied it, and a slight rush of air blew past him. The interior of the room was still dark, and Jou suddenly felt as though he were going into dangerous territory. He shivered a little; it was freezing in there.

"Come on, let's make this quick," Seto said, ushering him inside. The doors had only opened up a couple of feet, and Seto pushed Jou through first. With every step they took, the automated lights clicked on, gradually illuminating the entire room. The fluorescent lights were white-bright, and even the floor had a metallic sort of shine to it. The room itself was cavernous, and the walls were lined with solid steel, larger than average safety deposit boxes with keypads on them. They were each numbered, and some had little blue lights above them.

"Wow," Jou said, standing in the centre of the room and spinning slowly. "Does every one of these have something in them?"

"No, only the ones with blue lights," Seto answered, following Jou's eyes around the vault. It **was** rather impressive, if he did say so himself. He could understand Jou's amazement – this place looked every bit as grand and imposing as he meant it to look. He watched Jou wander up to one of the small safes and touch it, and thought that Jou looked like a kid in a candy store – excited and a little awed, wanting to touch everything but knowing he had to behave. Seto wondered if ten minutes was enough time for Jou to have had enough fun.

"And do they all have different passwords?" Jou asked, turning back to look at Seto.

Seto hesitated a little before answering, "A few of them have special passwords. The rest have a standard password. Of course, only Mokuba and I know them all."

"Of course," Jou said, turning back to the wall of safes in front of him. "This place is like a goddamned prison."

"Well, that's sort of the point, Katsuya. Nothing can get in, and more importantly, nothing gets out without the proper authorisation. It's impenetrable."

"Jeez. Hey, how come they don't go in order?" Jou asked, looking at all the little winking blue lights.

Seto knew what he meant. He had an elaborate system set up for the vault, and he had wondered if Jou would notice. He felt oddly pleased that he had, and so he began to explain the organisational scheme. Safety deposit boxes 1 through 100 were reserved for important documents; boxes 101 through 200 were reserved for prototypes, most of them top secret; boxes 201 through 300 were reserved for various personal effects and so on and so forth. He had divided all one thousand boxes into specialised sections, and he turned around the room as he counted them all off for Jou.

**12:30pm**

As soon as Seto had turned his back, Jou dropped his fake interested smile and quietly edged away from him. He hated to get Seto started, but he never really knew what would do it. He was glad Mokuba had taught him the smile and run trick, and he let Seto talk to himself for a few minutes as he wandered the rest of the room. He stopped at one of the huge metal doors that they had just come through, noticing that there was a different sort of keypad on it, with a large red button in the middle. It was the kind of button that Jou knew he shouldn't touch, and so he called out to Seto.

"Hey, what does this button do?"

Seto whirled around to see Jou pointing at the red button, and appeared so quickly at Jou's side he thought he'd teleported.

"Don't touch that button, Jou!" Seto said. He nearly breathed a sigh of relief when Jou held up both his hands in mock surrender. He almost shook his head again. He loved Jou more than he ever thought he could, but he really was a clumsy oaf. He attracted disaster to him quicker than a large hole in a small boat in the middle of the widest sea.

"I was just asking what it does," Jou said, looking a little miffed.

"Right. It's an auto-locking mechanism. It locks the vault from the inside," Seto explained.

"Why the hell would you want to lock the vault from inside?" Jou asked, quite intelligently too, Seto thought.

"I always thought it was rather pointless too. Apparently the idea is that a thief might actually lock himself in here."

"Wait a minute, lemme get this straight. Some crook is gonna be smart enough to make it past all your security systems, get into the impenetrable vault, and then be stupid enough **lock himself** in here? That's the dumbest thing I ever heard. Who's gonna be dumb enough to lock themselves in here?"

As he said this, Jou reached his arm out, and Seto would forever swear that it was on pure instinct that he lunged at Jou's outstretched arm shouting "I said don't touch it!", causing Jou's hand to flail backwards and squarely smack the red button. They barely righted themselves as the doors clanged shut, followed by the sound of the automatic bolts locking into place. The lights flickered and dimmed, and if they strained, they could hear a shrill siren screaming above them. They slowly turned to look at each other.

"What the hell did you do that for!" Jou yelled at Seto, confident for once in his life that this certainly wasn't his fault.

"I thought you were going to press the Auto-Lock!" Seto replied heatedly, equally confident that this was all Jou's fault somehow.

"Well I wasn't! Look, whatever, just get us out of here." Jou resolved to fume in a more comfortable location, but then found the sudden silence that surrounded them odd. He looked up at Seto, who was looking back at him blankly.

"I said get us out of here," Jou repeated, hoping that Seto had just temporarily gone hard of hearing.

Seto ran his hands through his hair and sighed heavily, which Jou recognised as his ultimate stressed out gesture. He quickly switched to panic mode.

"Oh no, don't say we're stuck here!"

"We're stuck."

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_Stay tuned, bitches! It's a saga, a** saga** I tell you! Clicky clicky review plzkthxbai!11183_


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks to all who reviewed!_

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"Oh no, don't say we're stuck here!" 

"We're stuck."

"Isn't there some sort of system override thing you can do?"

"Of course."

"Well do it then!"

"I can't."

"Why not!"

"Because I have to input my security pass codes into the outside keypad, and I am currently **locked inside**!"

Jou jumped when Seto shouted the last part, and Seto's angry voice echoed in the vault where his deadpan tone had hung stagnant before.

"Okay, fine. Then someone else will come and let us out," Jou said, trying to be the reasonable one.

"You know I'm the only one with the pass codes, Jou."

Jou almost winced. That tone of voice was not good, it was not good at all. He started grasping at anything that sounded like it could get them out of there.

"Well, we can call someone-"

"Cell phones and most any other form of electronic communication don't work down here."

"Okaaaaay…well, they'll get Mokuba to-"

"We changed all the codes when Mokuba went to college. They are no longer joint. It needs **my** retina scan."

Jou was getting desperate now. And Seto's flat voice and face worried him. Jou knew he was livid, but he was just leaning against the metal door there, expressionlessly staring at the floor. He really hoped Seto didn't go psycho on him - this was a particularly bad time to be locked up with him with nowhere else to go.

"Alright, well they'll just cut through the doors. It might take a while, but-"

"What part of 'impenetrable' don't you understand? They'll never make it through."

"Well – well what the fuck are we supposed to do, then!" Jou's voice rose shrilly, and he didn't understand why Seto was being so calm about this.

"We wait it out," was the dry reply.

"Wait it out? **Wait it out**! Are you telling me this thing'll open by itself?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you."

"Then why the hell did you let me freak out like that! Jeez! All we gotta do is wait it out!" Jou could literally feel the relief flooding through him, relaxing his tense body.

"How long till it opens?" he asked, prepared to wait as long as it took. It couldn't be more than an hour, right?

Seto finally looked at him, and Jou's heart immediately sank again. That look was a mixture of irritation, resignation, and amusement. That look said that Seto would be laughing at Jou if he hadn't gotten stuck in this predicament too.

"Twelve hours."

Jou's reaction was both immediate and delayed. His eye twitched, and he felt dizzy, but it took a few moments before he could say anything.

"Are you fucking serious! **Twelve fucking hours**!"

"Dead serious. Now, I suggest we each pick a side of the vault and stay there for the next twelve hours, or there's going to be a homicide."

Seto pushed off from the door and brushed past Jou, stalking to one corner of the vault. Jou stared after him, mouth agape. How the hell could they last twelve hours in here? His frustrations got the better of him, and he began to blubber.

"But – but – but it's my birthday! There is cake waiting for me! What the hell are we supposed to do in here for twelve fricking hours!"

"You should have thought about that before you pushed the button," Seto said from his corner.

He was already seated on the floor, leaning against a wall, one knee pulled up to his chest and the other leg curled around his foot. One arm was draped across his raised knee, while the other hung down at his side, fingers drumming soundlessly against the floor. He would have looked like he was ready for a day in the park if it wasn't for the drumming fingers. To the best of Jou's knowledge, Seto hardly ever fidgeted. That was obviously a sign that he was under some extreme mental stress.

"You always have to push the button," Seto said, half to himself. "Just can't leave well enough alone."

"Hey!" Jou said indignantly. "I said I wasn't gonna touch it and I really wasn't! **You** pushed my hand back on it! This is **your** fault, not mine!"

Seto gave a condescending little nod, as if to say "Sure it was," and Jou bristled.

"Besides," Jou continued, "if that Auto-Lock thing is so stupid, why the hell didn't you get rid of it?"

"Because I never got around to it! There were always more important things to focus on." He glared at Jou. "That, and I never thought I'd be locked in my own vault. But here I am, Seto Kaiba, entrepreneur and multi-billionaire, locked in my own – fucking - vault."

Seto stared at a spot on the opposite wall with extraordinary concentration, and Jou rolled his eyes. If Seto was going to be melodramatic, he might as well just go and sit in his own corner. Jou turned around, and went to go sit as far away from Seto as he could get. It was clear that Seto most certainly did not want to speak to him at all. He slumped against the wall in the corner diagonally opposite Seto's, cross-legged, wondering how long it would take for the silence to drive him crazy.

**2:10pm**

"Dum dum, dum da deeeeeeee."

He tried to hold out the note for as long as possible, but that was it. That was the last song Jou knew. He had resigned himself to the fact that he was stuck there for longer than he could grasp, and that he would eventually lose it. Until that time, however, he could at least try to keep his mind off of their current state of affairs, using any means necessary. He had hummed everything he could remember, from nursery rhymes, to pop, to the golden oldies of yesteryear. He had even hummed the Macarena. Now, he was completely empty.

He looked over at Seto, who looked like a statue, except for the odd jumping finger. He was still in the same position, and he was still staring at the same spot on the wall. He showed no signs that he was alive, far less that he even knew Jou was in the room. Jou sighed. He just looked so frozen. If only Jou could melt his heart…give himself to me-

Hah! Madonna! Jou knew he knew more songs! Feeling happy and oddly accomplished, he had barely started humming when Seto spoke for the first time in an hour.

"If you hum another song, I will kill you."

Jou shut up instantly. Seto might actually try something. Jou glanced at Seto again, who looked like he was thinking very hard about something. He still wasn't looking at Jou, but he wasn't just staring at the wall either. 'Well, at least he isn't catatonic anymore,' Jou thought optimistically.

His optimism, however, was misplaced. They were still locked in the vault, with a good ten hours to go. Short of ripping his hair out of his scalp and making mittens with it, there was nothing else for Jou to do. Well, nothing besides counting, but he wanted to save that for later. He snorted softly after thinking something funny - he could always try getting Seto to talk.

Seto heard sighing from Jou's corner of the vault, but he refused to acknowledge it. A blissfully quiet moment passed, and then Jou sighed again, louder this time, and Seto almost rolled his eyes. He knew what Jou was gearing up to, and he wondered what idiotic thing he'd say to breach the silence. Whatever it was, he would make it quite clear that he was in no mood for conversation. He returned his mental efforts to concocting the least embarrassing excuse possible to give to his employees and the inevitable news crews when they finally got out of the vault. He had spent the first hour fuming in silence, but honestly, this deserved his attention more. The truth was just too ridiculous.

Jou cleared his throat, realising that passive tactics were not working. He saw Seto's eye twitch, and decided to go for it. At least he was listening.

"I, um, I wonder what the gang is doing. I hope they're not worried," he said, sounding very concerned. Seto focused his aloof gaze on Jou's face and responded, but it was not the reassurance Jou was hoping for.

"I'm sure they're not worried at all. In fact, they're so accustomed to your stupidity landing you in compromising, uncomfortable and often dangerous situations that they're probably laughing about it. They're sitting back right now, eating cake without you. **Birthday cake**!"

Seto's eyes flashed, and Jou gasped. He was genuinely hurt.

"Jeez, Seto. You sure know how to wound a guy…"

Seto was just about to say something less harsh, but Jou beat him to it.

"I hope they save me some cake," he said, with a distant look in his eye.

Seto changed his mind about saying anything nice.

**2:50pm**

He was calm. His head was empty. He was calm. He-

"Hey! Are you sleeping?"

Seto felt the whole left side of his face twitch.

"Good! Cuz I'm not gonna let you sleep over there! If I'm awake, you're awake!" Jou continued.

Seto kept his eyes firmly closed and breathed out heavily through his nose, struggling to keep his composure. But Jou was damned near impossible to ignore. He was the dog that clung to the mailman's leg as he made his rounds, snarling and tugging. Even if you did manage to block out the pain, the sound of crunching bones would get to you. He was really frustrating that way.

"I mean it!" Jou shouted from his corner. "You better wake the hell up!"

Seto growled. So much for being calm. His concentration was broken. He opened his eyes and glared at Jou.

"I wasn't sleeping," he managed through gritted teeth.

"Then what were you doing?"

"I was-" Seto hesitated. Maybe he should have just stuck to staring at the wall; for one thing, he wouldn't have had to deal with this awkward explanation. It required more communication with Jou than he was willing to engage in. It wasn't a secret, but at the same time…

He cleared his throat before finishing in a lower voice. "I was meditating."

"What? What do you mean, you were meditating?" Jou screwed his face up in confusion. "You don't believe in that stuff. You don't even pray."

"I didn't say I was praying, I said I was meditating. There is a difference."

"Since when do you **meditate**!" Jou asked heatedly. This was clearly a secret Seto had been keeping from him.

"Well, since a certain person locked me in my own vault, I've been finding it particularly hard to control the urge to beat them to death with their own shoe. I also find, however, that meditation helps calm me down."

"Yeah, funny." Jou rolled his eyes. "That's not what I asked, though."

Seto sighed, unfolding and refolding his limbs to mirror Jou's cross legged position. He thought for a moment before he answered. "It's something I've been doing since I was a kid. I'd read about it, and I tried it, and it works for me. I don't do it often, though."

Jou raised his eyebrows, asking for further clarification. Seto sighed again before continuing.

"It's not spiritual or anything like that, it's just what I said. A way to clear my head and calm me down when things get-" Seto stopped, looking for the right word. "-hectic. It helps me focus. Keeps me sane, sometimes."

"How come you never told me?" Jou asked after a miniscule silence, looking genuinely interested in the answer.

"It never came up. Like I said, I hardly ever do it, and when I do, I'm alone. Usually." Seto eyed their confines in disgust. "This situation is just…" He trailed off, fairly sure that Jou understood their situation.

Seto expected Jou to say something else, but no response came. He eyed Jou, who was just looking at him with an odd expression on his face.

"What?" he asked tensely. He would have shifted uncomfortably too, but he had long ago learned to control those compulsions.

"Nothing. I just-" Jou shrugged. "I like that I still got still so much to learn about you." He gave a crooked smile and leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. Seto did the same.

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_Review plzkthxbai!_  



	3. Chapter 3

_Yes, yes, back again! Chapter 3, all for you!  
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**4:20pm**

"Fuck!"

"What now?"

Jou had been quiet for a very long time. Seto still wasn't talking to him, and so he'd decided to make with the counting. He had started counting all the boxes, but he already knew that there were a thousand of them, and so it seemed pretty pointless. He had abandoned that, and instead started counting the boxes that were occupied. He counted the little blue lights for a while, until he gave that up too. They blinked so much he wasn't sure which ones he had counted before, and he had the feeling that he had counted the same row five times. And that he was getting glaucoma in his left eye.

He would have tried counting something else, but his brain was on freeze. Literally. He had both his knees pulled up to his chest, his arms wrapped around them, and he had been concentrating on his shivering. He heard somewhere that muscle spasms produced heat. But he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Why the hell is it so cold in here? I'm freezing!"

Seto did not seem the least bit sympathetic. Or the least bit affected. "I specified a very low temperature for this room. This is where we keep a lot of our prototypes and – things like that. There's a lot of sensitive equipment in here."

"Tell me about it. My balls are shrivelling as we speak."

"Your balls."

"Yeah. My balls. I think I have a mangina now, they're so far inside my body."

The mental image coupled with Jou's deadpan voice almost made Seto laugh. Almost.

"I guess there's no way to turn up the heat from inside here, right?" Jou asked, not even the slightest bit hopeful.

"Right," Seto said from his corner.

"Right," Jou repeated. He sighed, and thought that he could see his breath hovering smoky-white before him. He was going to freeze to death in here. He should have worn something warmer; his white button down shirt and grey slacks just weren't cutting it. He wished he had taken more into account than looking good (because that was always first priority), like freak accidents and proper insulation.

A few moments passed after Jou's confession of budding frostbite, and then Jou heard Seto clearing his throat from his own lonely, lonely corner.

"I can give you my coat, if you want," Seto offered grudgingly, and Jou snorted. Even when he was offering to help, Seto could make it sound like he didn't care either way. Maybe he really didn't.

"No, I'm fine," Jou said crossly. He sniffed indignantly and put his head down on his knees. He'd be fine, damnit.

**5 minutes later**

"Gimme the fucking coat."

He listened to the sounds of Seto shrugging off his massive trench and didn't bother to look up.

"Catch."

He raised his head from his knees just in time for Seto's balled up coat to catch him square in the face. His head smacked the wall behind him and he groaned.

"Nice. Real nice," he muttered.

He flipped an amused looking Seto a friendly bird and put the coat on. The sleeves weren't as tight as he thought they would be, and the cuffs brushed the backs of his hands. It smelt great. He wrapped the voluminous and aerodynamic cloak around his legs. It also wasn't as warm as he thought it would have been, either. He looked at Seto, who was wearing even less than Jou had been now. He knew for a fact that that stretchy black top was little thicker than cling wrap.

"What about you?" he asked. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," Seto replied. He really did look fine. "I'm no stranger to cold." He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes again, his face relaxed and his locket glinting gaily.

Jou wondered just what the hell that meant. As far as he knew, Seto had never been to the Arctic regions of the earth. Maybe it was a reference to his wonderfully icy personality, but Jou doubted it. Seto did not make jokes about himself. Maybe it had something to do with his highly mysterious past. If that was the case, then he would just have to chalk it up as one of those things he'd probably never, ever know.

He always wondered about Seto's past more than he would have normally because he and Mokuba never talked about it – never. He knew the basics – they lost their parents, were put in an orphanage and were adopted by Gozaburo Kaiba; but Jou really didn't know anything else at all. They always managed to dodge questions, clamming up immediately, sharing a look of brotherly understanding. Sometimes – Jou was man enough to admit it – he was a little jealous. But he'd make it in to their club one day. He was sure of it.

**5:00pm**

"I'm still cold, you know," Jou said suddenly, startling even himself in the silence.

"Do you want my shirt too?" Seto deadpanned, but Jou wasn't irritated. Seto looked like he was trying hard to find a solution to their temperature troubles. He really needn't bother. Jou already had one.

"I think it's pretty obvious what we have to do here. You might not want to, but it's all we got," he said confidently. He started shifting, and Seto frowned.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm coming over there!"

"Why?"

"Body heat, baby! I ain't gonna freeze to death here when I could be warm over there with you." With that, Jou untangled himself underneath Seto's coat and groaned. He would have stretched, but he didn't want to chance breaking anything. Instead, he started making his way slowly and painfully to Seto's side of the vault.

"What the – what are you doing? Get up and walk if you're coming over here!" Seto did not seem to approve of Jou crawling on all fours across the floor to meet him. Why, Jou couldn't imagine. It was always a hit in the bedroom. He paused, and sat back on his heels.

"I'm shaking like a crack-head on a bad day, okay? I've been sitting there so long, I got cramps in places I never knew I had, alright? My **ass** is **so** numb-"

"There are cameras all over this place! If you don't want to be immortalised on tape limping like a mortally wounded dog, I'd suggest you stand up."

Jou's mouth worked uselessly for all of two seconds. "What! You got cameras in here?"

"A few."

He pointed to a couple of spots in the ceiling, and Jou was instantly mortified.

"You coulda told me that hours ago, you baboon! I was just picking my nose like I lost something up there!"

"Like you ever pick your nose any other way," Seto said, clearly annoyed.

"That's not the point!"

Seto rolled his eyes and got up, stretching and flexing. The sound of joints cracking into place was faint, and Jou winced a little. He watched Seto walk along the wall, his eyes on the ceiling, and followed his body down when he sat in a new spot, not so far away from him. Seto's back was to the wall again, and he turned to Jou.

"Whatever. Just walk over here if you're coming."

"What did you move for?" Jou asked, still kneeling in the middle of the floor. He was reluctant to approach Seto.

"People are probably watching. The cameras. This is the only blind spot."

"Jeez! We're not making a sex tape, Seto, we're just huddling together for warmth!" Seto and his damned privacy. He somehow got to his feet and, to his surprise, managed to execute a very respectable hobble up to Seto.

Seto had pulled up his legs and spread them wide, his feet flat on the floor; and Jou sank down in the offered space. He reclined until his back met Seto's chest, and his head found a shoulder to lean on. Probably out of habit, Seto's arms came to loosely rest around Jou's middle, and Jou crossed his arms on top of them. He pushed back into Seto's body with his own, seeking total contact, and nearly shivered when Seto exhaled deeply; a long, hot breath that crept down his neck and raised every pore. He closed his eyes and sighed. Seto's warm embrace was much better than that of the cold, unfeeling metal walls.

"This is much better," he murmured. "Hah! I knew you still loved me!"

"How can you be sure that I still love you?" Seto asked in an entirely frosty manner.

"'Cuz I still got invasion-of-personal-space rights."

"It's disgusting how well you know me." Jou allowed himself a smile at Seto's flat voice, and breathed in deeply.

Seto rested his cheek on the side of Jou's head, his breath stirring the unruly blond hairs. Jou immediately felt warm and comfortable, and wondered why he hadn't suggested this sooner. Oh yeah, the hypothetical homicide.

"Look, Seto, I'm – I'm really sorry this happened," he said in a low voice. He wouldn't take blame for it because it wasn't his fault, damnit, but he was still sorry they were stuck in here.

"Me too," Seto replied, his voice just as quiet. "Some birthday, huh?"

Jou smiled a little, and pondered that statement. "Even though this is a disaster - you know, the really nasty kind you only see in movies - I think I've had worse," he said eventually. He felt Seto's chest vibrate in a silent chuckle.

"I can't imagine anything worse than today," he said sceptically.

"Probably not," Jou laughed. "But at least we're together. It'd suck donkey balls if I was down here by myself. I'm glad I got to spend my birthday with you," he finished softly. He shifted his head and craned it back a little, so he could smile up at Seto.

"Truce?" he asked mildly.

"Truce," came the serene answer, accompanied by a serene, cerulean gaze.

"Good," Jou whispered throatily, reaching up to graze kisses along Seto's jaw. Seto's arms loosened and he put a leg down as Jou manoeuvred around to better reach Seto's face and neck, and his brown head dipped to meet Jou's blond one.

"Just how blind is this blind spot of yours?" Jou asked, nuzzling Seto's cheek with his nose, bracing on the floor with one hand while the other started a slow and steady descent.

"They can only see the top of our heads. Maybe a leg or two," Seto replied absently, snatching swift kisses from Jou's sly lips. They paused their cat and mouse game as Jou's hand tugged at Seto's belt and slowly made its way lower.

"Is that a candy bar in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" Jou asked playfully, running his hands over the bulge in Seto's pants. Seto smiled a wicked smile, and leaned back against the wall.

"It's a candy bar."

Seto had never seen a mood evaporate quicker. Jou pulled back, suddenly angry and quite possibly violent. His hand tightened on the candy bar in Seto's pocket, and Seto was unbelievably glad that it really **was** a candy bar, and not his sensitive equipment.

"You had food in here and you didn't tell me? You asshole! I've been starving!"

"Then why didn't you say something?" Seto asked, scowling as though he was the sole voice of reason in a roomful of crazy people.

"I was trying to be good! If I complained about being hungry too you mighta used one of your frigging prototypes on me! I been growling since we got in here!"

Seto raised a haughty eyebrow and stared Jou down, but secretly he was impressed with Jou's self-control. Who knew he had any? "Well?" he asked arrogantly.

"Well what?" Jou asked angrily.

"Aren't you going to take it?"

"Hell yeah I am!" Jou rummaged in Seto's pocket with unnecessary force, and his hand soon resurfaced clutching the much-coveted candy bar tightly.

"Ohhhh, Mr Nutty Fudgy Choco Peppermint Marshmallow Candy Bar, I love you so much..." he crooned, kissing the bright wrapper ferociously.

"Hey. You want any?" he asked Seto entirely too gruffly for it to be considered a genuine offer.

"No, thank you." Seto shook his head and looked at Jou in amusement. He watched Jou peel back the wrapper and take the first bite, making the most delicious sound he'd ever heard, to accompany the most satisfied face he'd ever seen.

"That's so fucking good…" Jou sighed, and Seto almost laughed. Almost.

"Jou, it's barely been four hours. One, you can't be that hungry, and two, if you eat all of that now, you'll be hungry for the next **eight** hours." Jou paused, looking like he was trying to do a difficult math sum in his head, and failing horribly.

"I – you're right," Jou said grudgingly. He sadly finished his mouthful, folded the candy bar closed and handed it back to Seto. "You are now the keeper of the candy." He looked like he was about to continue by detailing the candy keeper's duties and virtues, but Seto took pre-emptive measures and just grabbed it.

"Shut up," he said firmly, shoving the candy bar back in his pocket. 'Why do I always feel like his mother?' he asked himself seriously, reclining again.

Jou looked more than annoyed, but settled back against Seto's chest once more, albeit rather stiffly. They were both quiet for a while, and Seto was sure that Jou was thinking about the Mr Nutty Fudgy Coconut Pineapple Whatever Bar in his pocket.

"What the hell were you doing with a candy bar in your pocket?" Jou asked suddenly. The loud echo sounded vaguely accusatory in the stillness of the vault and Seto smirked openly. He loved being right all the time.

"It was for you. Something for you to snack on while I was in the meeting with the board." He looked at his watch. "Which would have been coming to a close any minute now." For the millionth time since the vault doors swung shut Seto suppressed a panicked vision of KaibaCorp burning merrily to the ground because he wasn't there.

"Damn. Lucky me. You think of everything, huh?"

Seto snorted loudly. "Sometimes there are things that even I don't think of. Obviously." Unbeknownst to Jou, this is actually what was upsetting him so much. Alright, he was mad that Jou had locked him in his vault, but he was even madder than he had somehow been caught unawares; that he didn't have a plan like he always did. Like he always should.

"Don't worry about it. One out of two ain't bad," Jou said, patting Seto's knee in a slightly patronising manner; and Seto found it more comforting than he thought he should have.

**5:50pm**

"Ooh! What's in that one right there – that – what number is that?" Jou squinted at a vault somewhere on the far side of the opposite wall. "Number 176!"

There was a short silence in which Seto reluctantly plumbed the depths of his memory. "The prototype version of the Stormraider game, I believe."

"Great! Umm, what about that one! Number 651!"

Seto was getting fed up of this game. He should never have told Jou that he had committed most of the vault's contents to memory, and he should really stop encouraging him by getting every question right. Not that Jou knew if he was right or wrong anyway. He supposed it was better than doing nothing, but it was really beginning to get on his nerves.

"There isn't anything in Number 651," he said.

Jou got to his knees and leaned forward, palms down. He squinted in safety deposit box Number 651's general direction and harrumphed. "Huh. You're right. These damned lights are getting to me. Alright, what's in Number 433, then?"

"Gozaburo's deformed love child! Who gives a shit? Just sit down and shut up!"

"Screw you, Grumpy! I'm just trying to kill the boredom, here! You got anything better to do?"

"I'm sure I could find something a lot less annoying."

Jou turned to face Seto, pulling his legs up to his chest. "Oh yeah, smartass?" he said defiantly. "Well, answer me this!"

Seto waited for Jou's question.

"What's in Number 284?"

Seto made a strangled sound of frustration and had to restrain himself from smacking Jou in the head. He would refuse to answer, that was all. He wouldn't say anything. But Jou just kept looking at him expectantly. And looking. And looking. And even when Seto had stopped staring back at Jou to scrupulously inspect his nails, he still felt the gaze like a hot, incessant finger poking his face.

"Old Duel Monsters cards. Most of them from my first deck," he muttered finally. He was barely done saying the words when he glimpsed Jou's wide grin, and helped himself to a slice of the revelation pie that Jou had no doubt just eaten. It seemed that there was some other way to occupy their time after all.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Jou asked with a special twinkle in his eye.

"I believe I am," Seto said. He threw a smug look over his shoulder as he made his way to safety deposit box Number 284. "I told you I could find something less annoying."

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_Liked it? Hated it? Hate that you liked it? Leave your questions and comments after clicking the purple button. Thank you._


	4. Chapter 4

_Here it be, the last chapter. Hope you folks enjoyed it while it lasted!_

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**7:20pm**

"Fuck!" Jou exclaimed. He ran his hands through his hair. "Who knew Niwatori could be such a fucking wild card?"

"Expect the unexpected," Seto quipped.

"Yeah, like you did two games ago? I beat you so bad!" Jou looked smug.

"That was just a fluke," Seto said tersely.

"But it was a brilliant fluke, wasn't it? You never saw it coming!" He really hadn't, not until it was too late anyway. Seto could tell Jou would be gloating about it for days to come.

"That was just luck, Jou." The blond grinned enthusiastically in response.

"You know, if it came down to it, I think I'd rather be lucky than good," Jou said, reshuffling his makeshift deck.

"Luck. Hah." Seto scoffed. "I'd take skill over luck any day."

"That's because you have no faith," Jou replied.

"Of course I have faith. I have faith in myself, and in my skills as a duellist."

Jou rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. It's all skill."

"What does that mean?" Seto asked in irritation.

"For a guy who doesn't believe in luck, you're pretty damned lucky."

And try as he might, Seto couldn't prove him wrong.

"Let's duel," he said in annoyance. He hated when Jou was right.

**10:20pm**

"How much time we got left?" Jou asked groggily.

Seto checked his watch for the thirty-seventh time that hour. "We're almost there. Two and a half more hours."

"I'm so excited, I don't even care anymore." Jou yawned. "I've never been so tired from doing nothing. Even Duel Monsters wasn't enough to keep me up." He yawned again, as if to prove his point.

They sat cross-legged, facing each other, and had stopped playing Duel Monsters half an hour ago. Jou had ceased complaining of the cold, preferring to suffer in silence; had eaten his candy bar, was still starving; had gotten crushed in Duel Monsters; and was now falling asleep on himself.

Seto, on the other hand, was far from sleepy. They had exhausted all their options, and now there was just pure, unadulterated nothingness surrounding them. Seto's agile mind was not accustomed to complete nothingness, and he was sure that this was what insanity felt like. What had been a moderate but aggressive buzzing in the back of his mind while he was otherwise occupied had now rushed unabated with a deafening roar to the foreground, and he was going crazy with knowing he had so much to do and couldn't do any of it. He had files to read, proposals to reject and egos to invalidate, goddamnit. And all he had been doing for a good chunk of the past ten hours was staring at the walls.

He said as much to Jou, more to keep him awake than anything else, and raised an eyebrow when, after a few moments thoughtful contemplation, Jou said he had something that could keep them occupied for a long time.

"No, no, it's not what you think," he said hastily as Seto began to remind him about the cameras. "It's a game," he said in a tone that implied that they were going to be having fun very soon.

Seto, however, had had enough of Jou's games. "I am not playing the Vault Game again, do you hear me?"

"Great, 'cuz I wasn't talking about the Vault Game," Jou shot back. "Let's play truth or dare."

Seto snickered. "I'm not ten years old, Jou. I am not playing truth or dare."

"I bet you never played truth or dare when you were ten anyways." Seto didn't answer. "Come on, what're you scared of?" There was a glint of challenge in Jou's eyes. Seto wished he could be sensible when Jou got that look in his eye, but he found that he rarely could, and was always tricked into another one of Jou's schemes. This time was no different, and Jou was already asking him "Truth or dare!" before he could re-evaluate the situation. He had the feeling that this could get dangerous.

"Truth," he said, in the surliest voice he could muster. How did Jou always manage to trap him into these things?

"Tell me the truth, now, you really are cold, aren't you?"

Seto couldn't bring himself to be irritated by the millionth iteration of that question. "A bit," he confessed reluctantly.

"There now! That wasn't so hard, was it?" Jou asked good-naturedly. "Alright, now, my turn!"

"Truth or dare?" Seto asked with maximum indifference. This was without a doubt the most childish thing he'd ever done, and given that he had been a child once, he was unsure of whether that fact was testament to how sad his childhood was, or how ridiculous they were being. Either way, he would do his best to make the game tolerable.

"Dare!" was Jou's immediate response. He regretted it when he saw the satisfied look on Seto's face.

"Good. I dare you to stay quiet for fifteen minutes," he said with an evil smirk.

"Oh, that was low," Jou said in disgust. Seto tapped his finger to his lips, and Jou crossed his arms and glared. He didn't spend all his time fuming, however. Jou took the opportunity to plan his revenge. He would make the most of this situation, even if it killed him. Which Seto might, when all was said and done, given the direction in which he was about to take their little game. He was ready when his time was finally up. He suspected Seto had sneaked in a couple more minutes, but he didn't say anything about it. He instead got straight to the point.

"Alright, Moneybags. You wanna play hardball? I can do that. Truth or dare?"

Seto looked at Jou for a while, no doubt trying to gauge what he had planned, because it was obvious from the no-nonsense tone of Jou's voice he was up to something. "Dare," he eventually settled on, hoping against hope to be dared into silence like Jou was. Or at least dared to do something relatively un-embarrassing.

"I dare you to answer my question," Jou said without skipping a beat. "Truthfully," he added.

"I don't think that's the way it works -" Seto started, but Jou interrupted him.

"How would you know? You've never played."

"So? I still know how it works."

"Forget how it works. Just answer me."

Seto didn't say anything, and Jou took his carefully blank expression as permission to ask his question.

"Why won't you tell me about your past?" he asked seriously. He tried to guess what Seto was thinking, but his typically impassive face was particularly unreadable. "Look, Seto," he said gently, "everyone's got a dirty little secret or two. You – you've got dozens. And I don't think they're so little, either. You can't run anywhere this time - I know it's hard for you, but can't you just…just let me in? Just a little?"

Jou and Seto locked eyes for a long time; and maybe it was Jou's general air of earnest pleading that did it, or maybe the cold was finally getting to Seto, or maybe it was indigestion from the bad pork they'd had yesterday - but Jou thanked whatever it was profusely when Seto gave the tiniest nod. He had never felt so elated. 'Who knew all it took was a natural disaster to crack him?' Jou thought incredulously. 'It must have knocked something loose…'

Seto had known this would get dangerous. He would need a generous amount of time admit it, but Jou was right. Again. They had been together for a while now, and maybe it was time that he told Jou things he should have known from the beginning. Things he wanted Jou to know. About his parents and the orphanage. About Gozaburo's torture. About how far he was willing to go to keep what was his and to protect those he loved, and why. Dark things, he supposed, but it wasn't that Jou didn't deserve to hear them, or wasn't ready to hear them. Seto knew Jou could take whatever he could throw at him.

It was that he hadn't been ready to tell them. It had always been that he wasn't ready. But it was time he took a chance on Jou, who had at least been brave enough to ask. He had to be brave enough to answer, but he had always been unsure about how to go about it. As he looked at Jou's open face, he knew there was only one way. He just had to take a deep breath and plunge right in. And there was no time like the present - he really couldn't run anywhere this time. He had nodded before he could stop himself - it was time he trusted Jou with his deepest of secrets, his most intimate of intimates. He'd see what Jou would do with them afterwards.

As he steeled himself for the undiluted truth, he couldn't help thinking that Mokuba would be proud.

"Alright," he said, rather confidently he thought, considering how he was really feeling. He looked unflinchingly at Jou. "What do you want to know?"

**12:25pm**

"-and that's why I'm not allowed in the Burger Shack on Tasty Tuesdays…or Fabulous Fridays anymore," Jou finished sullenly. "Happy?"

"Quite," Seto replied lightly. It was really taking a tremendous effort not to laugh out loud, but he controlled the urge. It was the least he could do for poor Jou. Jou had told Seto that he would do truths too, and that he could ask whatever he wanted so that it wasn't so unfair. Seto had taken full advantage of that situation, asking Jou the most embarrassing things he could think of, knowing that Jou would never **not** answer.

Two hours after Jou's first question, telling the truth had gotten a lot easier. Sometimes Jou asked the most difficult questions, and Seto was honestly surprised by some of the things Jou wanted to know, but he found that the more he talked, the less locked up his insides felt with every new question. It felt like confession; in the beginning each answer to each question had oozed unwillingly out of him like stubborn tar, short and unelaborated. He had been anxious about letting go, torn between what Jou was thinking and disbelief that he was telling Jou these things he'd never said aloud to anyone.

But now, he just wasn't holding onto anything anymore, and he was actually feeling pretty good about it. Well, almost 'pretty good'. He was sure that the acute awkwardness he'd been feeling was just temporary. At least, he hoped it was. He could tell it would take him a while to get used to Jou knowing everything he knew, but he was strangely comfortable with it. With the idea, at least. The actuality of it, he realised, might take some practise. Which was something he resolved to work on.

"Is there anything else you want to know?" Seto wanted Jou to get everything off of his chest now; he wasn't sure when he'd be ready for another confession session like this one.

"Nope," Jou said contentedly, gazing at Seto. Jou knew it was just his mind going off on a giddy trip, but Seto actually looked different to him now. He was brighter, more fragile, more beautiful, and more unbelievably human than Jou thought possible. He really liked – no, **loved** this. This unabashed trust from Seto was the best birthday present ever.

He was lying of course, he was bursting with more questions, but he could wait. He considered what Seto had just done to be an incredible leap that Jou thought him incapable of taking, and Jou thought if he asked Seto another question, he just might break him. He could always take this up at a later date. A much, much later date, he knew; but he also knew that Seto had opened the door, and he had stuck his big foot in it, and they had all the time in the world.

"Okay," Seto said agreeably. He seemed glad that Jou was done, and Jou was just glad in general. He was so happy he might have done a jig if his hip weren't frozen in place. Or, if he knew what exactly a jig was.

A weird little silence stretched between them, mysteriously more comfortable than it was uncomfortable.

"Twenty more minutes," Seto said nonchalantly, glancing at his watch.

"Twenty minutes, huh?" Jou was the tiniest bit disappointed that they had such little time left. He had finally begun to enjoy their forced solitude. It had just been the two of them alone for the first time in a long time (and the people watching the cameras, of course, but Jou had blocked that thought out because it was creepy), and they had found a definite intimacy within the vault's impenetrable steel walls that Jou didn't want to give up yet.

He finally registered what he was thinking and almost smacked himself. What the hell was he talking about? Of course they needed to get out of there. He must have advanced hypothermia, or something. He wondered if there was anything Seto could do to help him out.

"Hey. Can you think of anything we can do in twenty minutes that can warm up my poor, numb body?"

Jou asked this in an entirely innocent way that implied nothing but naughtiness. Seto eyed Jou and affected a pensive look.

"You mean work the joints a little? Stretch the muscles?"

"Exactly! It's like you read my mind! You thinking about anything in particular?"

"Absolutely. Stand up."

"What?" Jou had been leaning forward on his hands, inching his face closer and closer to Seto's. What he had planned did not involve any standing at all. "What are we doing?"

"We're stretching. A little exercise is exactly what we need. We should have done this hours ago." And with that, Seto got to his feet and yanked Jou up with him. Jou heard something pop, and although he was mostly numb, he was positive he felt an ambiguous pain somewhere.

"Oh dear gods," Jou whispered, clutching his side. "I think I broke something."

"Is that the wailing of an infant I hear in the distance?" Seto asked glibly, bending to touch his toes.

"Screw you!" Jou retorted. "You're no fun at all," he muttered, and having no choice, tentatively straightened up and started stretching out his arms.

**12:45am**

The alarm signalling that the vault was about to open came faintly through the steel walls, and both Jou and Seto perked up. Seto had been slowly pacing, and Jou had been leaning against a wall, watching him idly. Jou immediately said a silent thank you to whoever was listening that he hadn't frozen to death, starved to death, been bored to death, and **especially** that he hadn't been beaten to death with his own shoe. He had never been so relieved, and he relished the thought of The Outside. He couldn't wait to go home, eat everything in his fridge, and then go curl up in his nice, warm bed and sleep off what he hoped would not be permanent trauma.

After a moment's thought, however, he also said a silent thank you for getting locked in there in the first place. Not that he wanted to make the vault his personal summer home or anything, but it definitely had its uses.

Jou took off the trench coat Seto had so graciously offered him hours before to give it back to Seto. He returned it in much the manner he had received it; that is, he flung it at Seto's head. Seto, obviously preoccupied with the story he was going to tell once they got out of there and all the work he'd have to catch up on, never saw it coming. Jou shrugged at the megawatt glare Seto gave, saying only "Expect the unexpected," to which Seto snorted mightily in reply. He went back to his brainstorming, and Jou continued observing him. Seto was absently straightening his trench coat with a meticulous care that Jou frankly found absurd. He smiled fondly. It really hadn't been such a disaster after all.

Seto, on the other hand, had business on his mind. He was sure he'd have a lot to deal with once they crossed the threshold, and he wasn't really looking forward to it. Maybe he'd lost some brain cells, but he actually appreciated the time he and Jou had just spent in the vault. He really couldn't remember the last time he got a chance to slow down and just be with Jou, and perhaps after everything that had unfolded between them, maybe the crippling embarrassment of being locked in his own vault was kind of, a little bit, sort of, possibly…worth it. Yup, that was it. He had definitely lost some brain cells, and they **definitely** had to get the heck out of there. He glanced at Jou, who seemed as reluctant as he was to leave. But it really couldn't be helped.

"Time for damage control," Seto said striding toward the door as the first bolt slid back with a resounding clang. Jou followed.

"Wait! Just one more thing," Jou said suddenly, pulling Seto's arm and making him turn around. It sounded vaguely urgent, and Jou definitely looked worried.

"What?" Seto asked. Jou regarded him seriously, and Seto prepared to answer what seemed to be an important question. He'd answer whatever Jou asked here, in this steel cocoon of safety where there were no boundaries between them anymore. Seto wondered what was upsetting Jou so much.

"Do you really think they ate all the cake?"

And just like that, things were back to normal.

"I hope they ate all the stupid cake," Seto said crossly. "It would serve you right for causing this mess in the first place!"

"How many times do I have to say that this isn't my fault!"

"You can't count that high. Besides, whose fault would it be, then? Surely not mine."

Their loud voices drowned out the sound of the second bolt pulling back.

"I am going to kill you! It's a miracle we made it outta here alive!"

"I agree. I'll tell you what. When we're done here, I'll take you to the Burger Shack to celebrate it. We'll call it a belated birthday feast. It's not **Tuesday**, is it?"

"Hey, fuck you! You are so gonna get it when we get out of here!"

"I can run faster than you."

"Hah! I'd like to see you try."

The last bolt pulled back, and the vault doors swung open a crack, letting in a light so bright they had to squint a little. They also heard the noise of those waiting for them, Seto's staff and gods knew who else all babbling excitedly. Jou realised it might take them longer than he thought to get out of there. Seto, who had known that all long, put on his game face. The prospect was exhausting, but in light of all that had just happened to them, and they knew they could endure it. It'd be a piece of cake. Birthday cake.

They both walked toward the door that opened up on the real world, bickering merrily all the way.

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_You know what to do. Clicky clicky!_


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